In the condition of fattening beef cattle and mutton sheep with high concentrate diet,how to prevent rumen acidosis

Rumen acidosis is a kind of acute metabolic acidosis, which is caused by excessive intake of carbohydrate containing feedstuffs and the formation of a large amount of lactic acid in the rumen.This definition, in earlier years, was mainly aimed at the situation that cattle and sheep ate large amounts of carbohydrate feed by mistake. With the improvement of beef cattle and sheep feeding and management level, the degree of refinement is higher and higher, and the situation of cattle and sheep eating a lot of concentrate by mistake is rare. Under the condition of continuous raising of fattening technology, especially in the high concentrate finishing mode, rumen acidosis is more subclinical, with a high incidence rate.

The rumen pH value of Rumen in rumen of ruminant is dynamic. Under normal condition, the pH value of rumen is about 6.0. After feeding, starch will enter the rumen and ferment rapidly to produce organic acids (acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid and lactic acid) to reduce the rumen pH value (under normal conditions, the pH value is greater than 5.5).After feeding, the meat cattle and sheep will ruminate and secrete a large amount of alkaline liquid to neutralize the acid substances in the rumen, so as to improve the rumen pH value and achieve the dynamic balance of rumen pH. In the high concentrate diet, the rumen fed a large amount of concentrate and entered the rumen to produce acid rapidly and reduce the pH value of rumen. When the pH value was lower than 5.5, it could be judged as subclinical acidosis in rumen. When the pH value was lower than 5.0, it could be judged as rumen acidosis. In the high concentrate diet, especially in the late fattening period, mutton sheep eat a lot of concentrate (it is known that the ratio of concentrate to roughage can reach 9:1), which easily leads to rumen acidosis.

In the fattening of mutton sheep, rumen acidosis mainly manifested as diarrhea, pulling yellow feces, and feces were sticky and not agglomerated. The results showed that the production performance of mutton sheep was reduced and the breeding benefit was reduced. In beef cattle fattening, rumen acidosis mainly showed red hooves and lame legs, and the main onset period was in the late fattening stage. After the onset of the disease, the feed intake of beef cattle decreases and the growth is slow. In serious cases, fat loss will occur, which will bring economic losses to farmers.